It’s Big, It’s Heavy, It’s Wood
Originally published at The Null Device Blog. You can comment here or there.
I decided recently that I needed a new studio desk. My previous desk was, in fact, designed for studio use, but it was also designed in the days of large CRT’s, not wide flat-panel screens, and it wasn’t really prepared to handle both a controller keyboard and a computer keyboard. I purposely had to by a smaller keyboard controller than I wanted simply to fit.
In short, I was out of space. I could add no more gear, and I was getting dangerously to the point where my monitor speaker positioning was being dictated not by acoustics, but by the placement of my screens.
The planning began. First, I checked the internets for studio furniture. As far as I can tell, studio furniture is regular furniture, maybe built a bit more solidly than your average desk, but still, standard furniture, with a few rack spaces added and a grand affixed to the price tag. Oh, sure, some of the Argosy stuff is optimized to reduce comb reflections, etc, but nevertheless, it’s still for most practical purposes a heavy duty desk. This was clearly out of my budget. My next option was to build. I wasn’t sure how, since I’m sort of the opposite of handy, nor was I sure what I was going to want to do, so I had to sit down and think about this for a while.
The first step was lumber. I figured I could cannibalize the heavy steel legs from my old desk, so I was already set there. I looked all over the place for good, solid chunks of wood and while I found a few that were workable, they weren’t quite perfect. I ended up springing for a piece of ¾” oak plywood, furniture grade. It wasn’t super-cheap, and I could’ve found oak ply cheaper - but not furniture grade. This had a very nice grain, no blemishes, was not warped in any way…perfect. To strengthen it I bought a piece of stiff ODF.
Next, since this was a studio desk, I wanted some rack space. I had some 12” rack rails already, so I figured I’d use those. A little cabinet hardware and some of the scrap wood from the trimming of the plywood sheet have me a cabinet that would slide on rails and hold all of my gear. The sliding bit was important to me, since it meant easy access to the back panels of my gear, saving me some effort in patching and re-patching.
After agonizing over what color to stain the thing for several minutes, I picked “antique oak” and got a stain/polyurethane combo. I stained everything, put a good solid coat on, then waited for it to dry.
Next morning, it was time for final assembly!
Of course, there was one problem - fully loaded with gear, the cabinet weighed the desk down on one side, and because of the configuration of legs made it slightly unsteady. And being heavy it didn’t slide easily. So I headed to home depot and bought some 3” casters for the bottom. Then got home and realized I’d purchased 2” casters that had been sitting in the 3” caster bin. (in my defense, I hadn’t had breakfast). But the casters gave it the support and flexibility, and now it slides well.
So I’ve got plenty of room now. There’s room for both screens, and I can position my monitor stands behind and not worry about them being blocked or acoustically shadowed. My head is now directly in the acoustical sweet spot. I’ve added a few gizmos to make my life easier - some ¼” hex bolts make for lovely headphone hanger pegs. Steel O-rings affixed underneath help keep cables organized. I may add other doodads as time goes on.
Hooray!